Assessment of solar photovoltaics potential installation into multi-family building’s envelope in Amman, Jordan

Abstract

Photovoltaic energy-generating has attracted widespread attention, because of its efficiency and environmental benefits. As the number of buildings floors increases, the area of the façade grows substantially larger than the roof, which led to increasing the potential for a solar system installed on the vertical walls, although they receive less solar radiation than roof surfaces. As a result, it has become critical to assess the solar installation possibilities on buildings’ roofs as well as facades in the early design stage. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to present a method to evaluate the suitable area on the building surfaces for photovoltaic installation, taking Apartment buildings in Amman, Jordan as a case study. The methodology is based on the assessment of the incident solar radiation on different surfaces, considering the shading effect from surrounding buildings in the most common residential urban zone in Jordan, and architectural suitable areas for PV installation. Different simulation software was used, Autodesk Ecotect simulation software was used to calculate the incident solar radiation on the building surfaces and IDA ICE 4.8 simulation software to predict the overshadowing area. The main findings of this study show that conducting a solar potential in the early design stage is critical to defining the most suitable surfaces for PV installation. Moreover, the highest potential envelope part of installing the solar photovoltaic technologies is the roof because it is unshaded and received the highest solar radiation, followed by the south façade with about 40% less received solar radiation. This study can contribute to supporting energy and urban planners in determining the best locations for solar photovoltaic installations on building surfaces.

Keywords

• Photovoltaic
• solar incident
• simulation
• building façade
• solar potential